The Nexus between Entrepreneurship Development and Unemployment: Implication for Economic Growth in Nigeria

Abstract

Unemployment and job creation are central to the development agenda in Nigeria especially with the rising rate of youth unemployment resonating within the Country. Strategies and measures have been put in place to curb these appalling rates via a professionalized system of education that will equip individuals with skills and enable them to start up petty enterprises. However, unemployment in Nigeria is appallingly high despite these efforts. This study therefore investigated the nexus between entrepreneurship development and unemployment; and its implication for economic growth in Nigeria.  The weighted least square technique was used to estimate the different models with time spans of five and nine years respectively within the period 1982 to 2013.The choice of this technique is driven by its ability to handle regression situations in the presence of non-constant variance (heteroskedasticity). The results established the occurrence of a twin effect: entrepreneurship development reduces future unemployment and also unemployment induces entrepreneurship development. However, the duration of impact is after eight years which is quite long.  Finally, the projected rate of unemployment in Nigeria for the year 2018 as established by the study is approximately 29.6%.